1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to business forms delivery apparatus, and more particularly, to a creel assembly for inverting business forms from a "face up" to a "face down" position for subsequent processing.
2. Prior Art
The present invention was designed particularly for use in a delivery apparatus to be associated with a business forms printing press or collating unit, although it is to be understood that the device is readily utilizable in many other environments and is therefore not intended to be limited in its scope to this preferred environment with which it is described below.
Business forms delivery systems are generally designed to provide only either "face up" or "face down" delivery of business forms and to put a plurality of these forms in batches for subsequent use. Thus it is common for the industry to have both types of delivery systems available although the assignee of the present invention has also developed a delivery apparatus which is capable of either "face up" or "face down" delivery as is disclosed in our co-pending application (Ser. No. 174,461, filed Aug. 1, 1980).
Business forms come in a substantial variation of sizes which produces some difficulty in designing equipment to have a sufficient range of operating capability in receiving, inverting and batching the tremendous range of sizes of business forms currently in use. For example, business forms generally range in widths, i.e. the dimension in the direction of movement of the series of business forms through the device, of 3 2/5 inches to 17 inches, and sometimes even higher. In the past, when operating at various sizes within this range it has been necessary to change the creel assemblies in order to provide a different number of slots for receiving the business forms in the creels so that the appropriate operating speed can be maintained during batching of the business forms in conjunction with operation of a high-speed collator or press. The time required to change the creels is substantial and is therefore labor intensive as well as requiring substantial down time for the entire line of equipment while the modifications are being made.